Blog Post #2-Using Addicts for Labor

The Vietnam Government calls it labor therapy, a program designed to get drug addicts clean and off the streets and back onto their feet in the real world. They are placed in treatment centers and work in cashew plants, sew garments, weave baskets or work in most factories. But now Human Rights Watch is calling this labor therapy nothing more than sweatshop servitude disguised as a social program. The drug addicts are paid little or nothing for the work and are subject to beatings, electric shocks, and solitary confinement. Many of the products made in the treatment centers are exported to Europe as well as the United States. These companies receive tax breaks for helping out drug addicts and then mistreat them and take advantage of the system. Due to these horrific conditions, relapse rates of these individuals is over 80 percent.

The mistreatment of workers and exploitation of the less fortunate is a global social problem. Workers are often forced to work long hours in the worst of conditions, from getting no sleep to know bathroom or food breaks. In addition, many drug addicts are often neglected or taken advantage of in many societies. People see drug addicts as outcasts who have made bad decisions and are helpless and push them away from the treatment they so desperately need. Also with this story, the goods that are being produced for our needs and economy are the ones being created by the drug addicts. In reality, we are fueling the conditions and treatment that these addicts are being forced into by so called government social programs. We need to stand up and not accept goods created in such horrible ways.